Frontiers - Nature

In a recent issue of Limn, an online magazine featuring scholarly commentary on contemporary problems, Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Term Professor Adriana Petryna of Anthropology and Assistant Professor of History and Sociology of ScienceEtienne Benson offer their takes on the issue’s theme of sentinel devices, indicators that can aid in “preparation for an uncertain but potentially catastrophic future.”

Richard Schultz, Charles and William L. Day Distinguished Professor of Biology and Associate Dean for the Natural Sciences, provides insight on the pressures of securing federal funding for basic research.

Blake Cole

When Associate Professors of MathematicsPhillip Gressman and Robert Strain discovered a solution to the 140-year-old, seven-dimensional Boltzmann equation, they probably didn’t expect their findings to be trumpeted on the floor of the U.S.

Shirley Leung, C’13, G’13, discusses the importance of having a faculty mentor.

Blake Cole

At the College of Arts and Sciences, undergraduate research isn’t just an option—it’s the norm. A recent survey showed that 75 percent of students in the College had a substantial experience in hands-on, independent projects during their undergraduate careers.

Charles Yang shows that toddlers know their grammar.

Susan Ahlborn

Parents view their child’s first word as an amazing thing when, in fact, learning to speak is something every child does. They all do it in about the same way. And it’s something that no other species can do. It’s amazing.

Image standardization developed by David Brainard will help medical research.

Susan Ahlborn

One way to judge the effectiveness of some ophthalmic medications is the redness of the eye. It sounds simple, until it’s a criterion in a nationwide research project using computers and electronic images. As anyone who’s ever ordered clothes online can tell you, one monitor’s red is another’s pink.

Lisa Ruth Rand explores the ecosystem of deep space.

Blake Cole

“Used a satellite today?” It’s a question doctoral student Lisa Ruth Rand in the department of History and Sociology of Science often asks—and the answer might surprise you. Given the growing use of smartphones and tools like GPS by ordinary consumers, more and more Americans are dependent upon space technology.

Physics graduate students look forward to careers in a slightly different world.

Susan Ahlborn

On March 14, scientists working with the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN presented new preliminary data that let them state with confidence that they had discovered a subatomic particle known as a Higgs boson.

Some scientists are content to spend their careers doing good, solid work, not breaking much new ground but building upon the foundations laid by others, making small and quiet contributions where they can.